222 BULLETIN 34, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Amphiuma mLuns Gaicl. 



Catalosuo 



No. of 



uumbtir. 



spec. 



9707 



I 



lOOU 



1 



1089L 



1 



■ 10890 



1 



6300 



1 



4533 



1 



7013 



10 



7065 



2 



7062 



1 



7048 



o 



11592 



i 



14561 



1 



4534 



2 



10865 



1 



14448 



4 



7064 



1 



Locality. 



AilingtoD, Fla. 

 'OakieyrS.O-'.'. 



Fort Jessup, Ark, 

 Tarbofougb, N. U. 



Biloxi, Miss 



Riceborougb, Ga.. 

 Charleston, S. C . . . 



Nasliville, Ga 



Prairie Mer Kouge, La . 



Columbus, Miss 



New Orleans, La 



Charleston, S. C 



When 

 collected. 



July— 1880 



From whom received. 



G. Brown Goode. 

 H.'iu Barker '.".!!! 



J. L. Biidger 



C. Bellman 



Dr. W. L. Jones 



Dr. S.B. Barker 



C.B.Adams 



Dr. Webb 



W. J. Taylor 



James Fa'iiie 



Spillinan 



Dr. K. W. Sbufeldt, U. 



S. A 



Dr. Shumard 



Nature ot 

 sijecimcu. 



Alcoholic. 

 Do. 

 Do. 

 Do. 

 Do. 

 Do. 

 Do. 

 Do. 

 Do. 

 Do. 

 Do. 

 Do. 

 Do. 

 Do. 



Do. 

 Do. 



C^CILIIDiE, 



Apoda Oppel ; Pseiidopliidia De Bl. 



Vertebne ampliicoeloiis, with auterior double liypopophyses. Vesti- 

 bule with internal wall o seous. Ethmoid well developed. Squamo- 

 sal and parietal more or less extended over temporal fossa. Scapular 

 and pelvic arches wanting. Orbit surrounded by the max llary bone. 

 Liver much subdivided. Testes, several o.i each side. Two protractile 

 muscles of the male rectum, which project a port'ou of it as an iutromit- 

 tent organ. 



This family has been usually regarded as representing a distinct order 

 of Batrachia. I have discussed this question under the head of the or- 

 der Urodela, within which I have placed it as a suborder, which should 

 bear De Blainville's name Pseudophidia. Besides the structural i)ecu- 

 liarities already pointed out, Peters and Sarasiii have shown the 

 branchial apparatus of the larva to be peculiar. Instead of forming 

 loops ill fibrillse of processes of the branchial arches, the branchial vein 

 and artery ramify on the surface of membranous bladder-like expan- 

 sions of the arches. 



The numerous species of this family are distributed throughout all 

 tropical regions except those of the Australian realm. They are most 

 abundant in tropical America. Their habits are subterranean, their 

 lives being mostly spent in the nests of ants, which they eat. Ai the 

 proper season they repair to the water and deposit their eggs. The 

 larvai pass through their metamorphosis early in life. All of the spe- 

 cies are nearly blind. 



This family appears to me to have been derived from the leg-bearing 

 Urodela through the Ainphumidcie, by a process of degeneration. Addi- 

 tional evidence in favor of this view is found in the discovery by Stras- 

 ser, of small cartilages in the position of the inferior elements by the 

 scajjular arch. This degeneration may be regarded as the result of the 



